Union due

The endless factories of the heavily industrialised belt south of Delhi might appear to be unstoppable. But tens of thousands of workers not turning up will put a pretty big dent in production. The strike,therefore,that shut down the Gurgaon-Dharuweda industrial belt is an occasion to examine the fragilities it reveals in our industrialisation process. The spark was the death of Ajit Yadav,a worker at Rico Auto Industries. Labour in Rico has been locked in a dispute with management; Yadav,one of the protesters,was brought to the hospital with head injuries caused by a heavy,blunt rod,according to the examining doctor. Many of the workers in Gurgaons factories seem to have responded with anger; by some estimates,as many as 80,000 went on strike today,showing,if nothing else,that there are grievances here that are broad-based and need to be dealt with expeditiously. (Concerns that the strikers assaulted workers who chose not to join the strike,or that they blocked Gurgaons vital highways,need to be addressed,too.)

But those who should be most concerned,the trade union leadership,seem to be failing to do just that. This is a straightforward labour-management dispute: workers want higher pay,and some of them want their union recognised; management is understandably concerned about its bottomline when the auto industrys in a downturn. Responsible national union leadership would aid Gurgaons workers in getting a good deal,with minimum disruption to the economic processes central to everyones prosperity. But,instead,Gurudas Dasgupta,the CPI MP who heads that partys affiliate trade union congress,the AITUC,summed up the national Lefts abdication of leadership when he promised support if the workers take up arms in retaliation.

AITUC and CITU (a CPM affiliate),will perhaps be impressed that so many answered their call. But many of those waving red flags will be fresh to the organised sector; if they see that the union leadership that is supposed to help them back to work is instead interested in play-acting revolution,they will become as disillusioned as others are elsewhere. And,for the Left politically,that will be another setback. Tens of thousands in Gurgaon may have answered its call; but how many of those voted for the Left candidate in the Haryana assembly election? If the Left wishes to expand beyond its enclaves,to live up to their rhetoric of being the parties of labour,they will need to show these same people that they are a responsible political force. Playing an obstructionist role in this stand-off is not going to help do that.